"Coïncidence Engines, by the Quebecois [The User], with its 1240 radio alarm clocks — beyond its obvious homage to Ligeti’s metronomes — provides an interesting perspective on working in a duo. With the diversion of their materials, via the prism of new technologies and the new social relations they create, and the poetic overlapping of structure, space and sound, the aesthetic and exploratory universe of [The User] has discovered an ideal configuration for new growth."via Digital art i

Google Maps 5.5 for Android has finally been released. It is a cool mobile app which adds up more features to mobile Google maps app that has already been in the market for quite a while now and which has been used by more than 200 million users across platforms and devices worldwide. This new version adds ‘ check in’ and ‘ rate and review’ buttons to place pages .Google Maps 5.5 is completely free and is available in the Android Market.

iTalk Recorder is one of the top downloaded app for Ipad and iPhone . iTalk Recorder allows its users to record audio and save it into their mobile library . I just can’t believe it is free now . As educators , iTalk Recorder can be very helpful when attending lectures or meetings , use it to record whatever going on around you and just the way you want it.

Some features of iTalk Recorder

Here are the main features and services that iTalk Recorder offers to its users :

It is free

It is dead simple

It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later

It has a great interface

It uses easy recording features that you can handle instantly

You can email recordings in iTalk Recorder Lite but emailing is limited to files under 2MB which ius a generous capacity for us in education

It offers a high-quality handheld recordings

It allows graphics updated for Retina displa

It includes auto noise-cancellation (iPhone 4)

It has easy to use control tabs : just the big red button to start recording, tap again to stop; slide forward and back when playing back your recordings

How can i get started using iTalk Recorder ?

To learn how to start using iTalk Recorder watch this video tutorial :

Applications in Education

iTalk Recorder is all pluses for educators . As i said before this is a great tool for professional development , how many times we attend important meetings,lectures, or seminars and we just can not note everything that has been dealt with , now with iTalk Recorder it is completely different .You wont let go of any info no matter how little it is . I strongly advise you to have this free app on your mobile devices .That’s it about iTalk Recorder : A Free Audio Recording Mobile App .You might also like :

FreezePage is a great web tool. It is a sort of bookmarking tool that is completely different from all the other bookmarking tools we have seen here so far. FreezePage as its name entails is a service that allows its users to bookmark the page as it is and store it for a later use. When you get back to the stored page you will find the same page you have bookmarked with no updates. Let me explain this more; for example i was on a blog reading an article about a certain web2.0 tool and then suddenly i had a call and i needed to go. If i bookmarked the page with other bookmarking sites i would for sure have it there but when i would refer to it later that day or anytime i would find the page updated and probably new articles there so i would have to start looking for the exact page i was reading this is because these bookmarking tools bookmark the URL and not the page itself, but with Freeze Page you will be able to get back to the exact page or even the exact paragraph you left off. Hummmmmmm isn’t that cool ? for me it is much more than that.

Freeze Page not only freezes the pages for a later use but also generates a url for this very page you want and you can share it with others to see . The page and its content will never change no matter how long you kept it in your store.

How can i get started using FreezePage ?

Press “Freeze Web Page” and wait while we get the Web page from the address you specified

the frozen page is automatically placed in a personal folder (“My Frozen Pages”)

Applications of FreezePage in education

Educators can benefit a lot from this free service. They can just freeze the pages they find online and generate URLs to share with their students , in this way they can make sure students are keeping up with what they bookmark for them .You can also use it to share URLs of pages of relevant interest with your colleagues and friends.That’s it about FreezePage: Freeze pages for later use.You might also like:

Human restore is a a great website for educators. It is a repository of free engaging documentaries featuring different categories. This website looks like John Locker: The free documentary website which i have covered in an earlier post. I know we need documentaries to include in our teaching from time to time but the problem is if you set yourself to look for some free ones then you would find yourself navigating the web endlessly and just to find if ever you are lucky , the ones you wanted. To save teachers’ time and help them better benefit from the net i organized a special page where i submit posts and links to the best free teachers resources. Look above and click on teachers resources to have a look at what you might have missed .

Human Restore is free and very simple to use . You do not need to sign up or anything . just head over to Human Restore main page and look at the categories column on the left hand side . Click on any category to bring up its components. Select the ones you want to watch and click on them . Yes it is this easy.

Applications of Human Restore in education

I strongly invite teachers and educators to have recourse to video resources such as Human Restore. Multimedia elements are very helpful in teaching and learning and students show more interaction and engagement when videos or audio clips are integrated into the classroom teaching.That’s it about Human Restore:Free educative documentaries .You might also like:

I think you would know by now that i am one of the bloggers who is fond of Google to the extent that i have Google stickers all around the house even on the fridge door lol. What i love about Google next to its search facilities is the high quality services it offers to educators. ¨probably all of these services are free and very easy to use with simple tutorials to walk you through all the procedure of its application. Believe me , if you ever understand and grasp in what really Google provides for educators , you would be in a better tech position than ever before.

I get emails from people around the world asking me if Google can help in education and each time i get one like this i just get shocked at how ignorant some educators are of the fantastic services offered for free by Google. Being a 21st century educator means automatically that you are integrating technology into your teaching and the first step to guarantee a safe, neat and secure implementation of this technology is to learn about what Google has for education.If the urge to learn about Google is stirring now inside of you and you feel like you need some tutorials about the different services Google offers for educators then i would save you the trouble of searching for i have done it all on behalf of you and have collected several articles talking just about Google services that you can use in your classroom, just check the tab above named Google/ Research Tools and browse through the posts you are interested in.Today i am introducing to you another free Google service called The Guide to Going Google. It is a resource from Google to help academic and educational institutions better implement Google apps in their campuses.” This site contains tools and guidelines to use as a starting point to getting your students, faculty, alumni, and community ready and excited about bringing Google Apps for Education to campus.”

The Guide to Going Google is divided into two main parts :One part is university editionThis part offers “Technical and communication resources and examples to help your college or university go Google”.Second part named K-12 editionThis part offers all the technical, professional development, and marketing resources for a K12 school or district to go Google.Google apps for educators is the best way for schools to start integrating technology into their systems and save money they would have spent on software and systems licensing, and IT support.That’s it about google apps for education: the best guide.You might also like:

Eduplace is really a great site . It offers a set of printable graphs and charts to use in the classroom with your students . These graphs are very handy and easy to use , so there is no need to spend time online trying to build charts or classroom assignment grills , you can find all in Eduplace and for free at the tip of a click . It is indeed a wonderful resource for all educators .

Laterloop is a great bookmarking service for educators. It is a twin sister of Mento , the other link sharing app i have talked about in Mento:a great way to shyare links with others. Laterloop allows its users to read WebPages later on phone or web. Whether you opt for the web or mobile version you will always be able to read your bookmarks instantly. What is even great about this tool is that it allows you to read your bookmarks offline. You download a ZIP file of your links and read them when you are offline. I am actually using Livebinders ( read: Livebinders the educative tool teachers should not miss to learn about this smart tool)which i love so much but when i tried Laterlopp i think i will add it to my bookmarking tools on my desktop.

How can i get started using Laterloop ?

Whenever you are on a website that you want to read later then just click on ‘Save For Later’ button on your browser

The link of that page will be automatically saved to your Laterloop account to access whenever you want.

Applications of Laterloop in Education

This is a very good tool for teachers who are very busy and keep on forgetting bookmarked links they scheduled to read. Now whether you are at school with your students or in the airport waiting for your flight , Laterloop will keep you connected to your unfinished work. That’s it about Laterloop: Read your links wherever you are.You might also like:

Mento is a great website i have stumbled upon recently. Mento allows you to save and share links with your friends and colleagues. I know there are many tools that can do the same but for us in education Mento is just what we need . It is quick , instant , secure and your links are just one click away.

Mento is a button for your browser and a place for saving your shared links. It is great for telling friends or co-workers about a link and in the same time be aware of those who clicked on your link. Poor students , they would no more give excuses such as i didn't get the link for the homework assignment for teachers would know if the links have been clicked on or not.

Some features of Mento

Here is a list of the main features that Mento provides for its users:

It is easy to use

It has a friendly interface

It is secure

It requires a sign up after which you get an invitation email to start using Mento.

It allows you to save and share links

It lets you send links to any email address, Facebook friends and Twitter contacts

You can use groups and tags for exchanging links with more people

Mento works best with Firefox and certainly supports Safari and Internet Explorer, too.

Mento tells you when friends clicked on your links

Add screenshots to the links you're sharing: select any part of the page and make your links stand out

You can also share videos and images from YouTube, Flickr and many other site

It lets you Automatically publish your links to the services you use . It supports: Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, FriendFeed, Tumblr, and Mag.gnolia.

What do you think of this tool ? did you like it ? if so then head over to Mento main page and sign up to receive your invitation or ask a friend of yours if they are already members of Mento to send you an invitation to get started. I wish you would give it a try and see if it works for you and your students too.That’s it about Mento: A Great Way to Share Links with Others.You might also like:

Google Scholar provides “a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature”. We all use Google in our daily lives and there are billion of queries searched daily in Google. To better use Google and get your search results as accurate as possible , i have devoted a post just to teach you some of the tricks to better search Google which you can read in Google search tips .

To look for researches or academic productions published in scholarly journals then you will need a whole different kind of Google. This is called Google Scholar. It is very easy to use and above all free. Google Scholar allows you search across different disciplines and sources to look for these, books, abstracts, articles, surveys and many more. The results are mainly submitted by academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Using this free service will make your academic researches much more easier than ever before.

Google Scholar uses a pretty smart algorithm to provide the relevant results for your queries. It ranks articles based on “the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature “. Don’t worry no spam result , It is Google.

Here is a video tutorial that will introduce you to some tips and tricks about using Google Scholarly.

Applications of Google Scholar in education

Educators, teachers and students all need to be using this free service; why not and it is created solely for them. You can refer your students to Google Scholar to browse for articles and scholarly publications they might be needing in their research projects. Teachers can also use it for their own professional development. I personally think that Google Scholar is a must have service for all of us in the field of education.That’s it about Google Scholar: Get the best academic and scholarly search results.You might also like:

Google Social Search is a newly released service. It allows googlers to get ideas and recommendations from people they trust and right into their search results. Wow isn’t that great ?Google has made it again and honestly speaking, Google has never stopped from amazing me with the high quality services they keep coming up with especially those ones that are education oriented. I am one of the biggest Google fans and i have devoted a whole section of this blog just to Google services and tutorials , you can have a look at what you might have missed from this Guru in Google Search/ tools page.

How does Google Social Search work ?

Google Social Search is a great way to get search results containing results from people you are connected to on blogger, flicker, twitter and publicly available site. Social Search can help you find information, pages, and links your friends have created and submitted online. It will also help you find links your contacts have shared on twitter and other sites. Therefore , if someone you are connected to have shared a link ,then you may find that link in your search results with a clear annotation. For instance , if you are looking for information on How to Teach Large Classes and your colleague John shared a link on Teaching large Classes then you will see an annotation and picture from John under the results.Remember that these social search results are only visible to you and only appear when you choose to log in to your Google account.To learn more how this service works you need to watch this short video tutorial.

Applications of Google Social Search in education

Google Social Search is a great service to be used by teachers and students. Now students can use it to look for search results submitted by their friends or teachers. We all trust people we know much and in this way the info published by the ones we are connected to are likely to benefit us more in our queries . That’s it about Google Social Search: Socialized Search Results.You might also like:

Are you the type of person who keeps on forgetting the meeting he has scheduled and people he meets ? Noteleaf is just what you need. Honestly speaking i am one of those people , i have sticky notes everywhere ( on my fridge door, bedroom wall and on many websites online) and still i miss many things. It is just very hard to keep up with everything.Noteleaf allows its users to schedule meetings in Google Calendar and be reminded when and who you are meeting with.

Some features of Noteleaf

Here is a list of the main features that Noteleaf offers to its users:

It is easy to use

It has an interactive interface

It allows its users to get reminders of what they have scheduled in Google calendar

It connects your Google and LinkedIn profiles

It is available for the desktop, Android, Blackberry, and IOS.

How does Noteleaf Work ?

To start working on Noteleaf you need first to authorize the app to use your Google app and LinkedIn accounts. Now you need to add an event in your google calendar to set the meeting. Noteleaf will then provide the LinkedIn information of the person you are meeting right from the calendar or simply send you a text message with a link to the mobile profile.That’s it about Noteleaf: a great reminder app for educators.You might also like:

Wise Mapping is a great tool for educators. I am including it among the educative mind maps tools in this blog because of the important features it offers to its users. Educators can benefit from this service a lot.Wise Mapping is a free online mind maps editor that allows you to create and share your mind maps with others.

Some features of Wise Mapping

Here is a list of the main features that Wise Mapping offers to its users :

It is free

It is easy to use

It has an interactive interface

It requires a sign up

It allows you to create and edit colorful and complex mind maps using just mouse and keyword

It lets you customize your maps by changing the border, text,shape and background color of your notes

It has a sophisticated authoring editor to help you manage your maps

You can share or save your mind maps right from the editor

You can make your mind maps either private or public

You can embed the image of your map anywhere you want online

How can i get started using Wise Mapping ?

To learn how to start working on Wise Mapping you need to head over to its main page and sign up for a free account .Watch this tutorial video to learn more

Applications of Wise Mapping in education

Wise Mapping is, just like all the other educative Mind Mapping tools i have covered here , very important in education for It develops visual thinking for students and stimulate more interaction from their parts. Students love when they are visually engaged and Wise Mapping can just help them stay focused on content. I love this tool and i recommend that you start using it to create mind maps to share with your students. Why not even introduce it to them and let them start using it as well.That’s it about Wise Mapping: a great mind maps creation tool.You might also like:

Catch is a great tool for both desktop and mobile devices. It allows its users to catch anything online and create out of it a bookmark ; be it a text note, voice note, or images. This service is very easy to use so why not educators try it in their daily work. It will make your time online much more beneficial and enjoyable. With Catch it is next to impossible that you will forget any info you have stumbled upon online.

To start using Catch , head over to Catch main page and sign up for a free account .

Applications of Catch in education

Catch is a very important tool for both students and teachers. It will allow them to catch their ideas whenever they are online and save them in the form of bookmarks. They can then later on share them with their friends or teachers and elaborate more on them.That’s it about Catch: Capture Notes Online for Free.You might also like:

Search Team is a cool website for educators. It allows its users to search in small teams and collaborate to find the best search results. It is a collaborative tool that we can use with our students. Searching the web in such a way has never been this easy. The purpose is to enhance a sense of collaboration and team work for our students .

Some features of Search Team

It requires a sign up but it is quick or you can log in using your face book , LinkedIn account or other services

It allows you to search the web more efficiently

It lets you save and organize results

It allows you to collaborate with your friends or colleagues in real time

How can i get started using Search Team ?

Head over to Search Team main page and sign up for a free accountNow watch these short videos to learn how to use this service.

Applications of Search Team in education

As i said earlier , Search Team is a great collaborative service offered for free. Students can use it when they are working on their search projects, home work assignments, and classroom projects. They can collaborate in real time and refine their searches and avoid duplicate content or references when submitting their papers.That’s it about Search Team: Collaborate and search the web in small teams. You might also like:

PDF to Word is a great web2.0 tool that allows it users to quickly convert their PDFs into other word formats. We all love PDF format and probably all of you have PDF files stored somewhere online or in a desktop for a later reference , but what if i want to make some changes to these PDFs and take just the parts i want from them and include them in other word formats , This is exactly PDF to Word‘s job. “Using PDF-to-Word conversion technology, you can quickly and easily create editable DOC/RTF files, making it a cinch to re-use PDF content in applications like Microsoft Word, Excel, OpenOffice, and WordPerfect.Best of all, it's entirely free!”.

History: Maps of World is a great mobile app for educators. As its name indicates , It is a fun and educational collection of high-resolution historical maps . It allows its users to have access to a wide and different range of world maps together with accompanying info like sources name, era view and key word search . The app is free so you will not pay a cent to use it . I am including this app into the mobile educative apps i am blogging about here because of its importance in education .

It provides a free screen rotation It does not require a network connection

Applications of History: Maps of World in education

We can use it to look for specific locations on the map and using the zooming options you can even bring closer a fading view. Students can use it in their research projects and classroom assignments to keep up with history, and learn something about history . I know history teachers will love it the most.That’s it about History: Maps of World: Search and find any map on your mobile.

myHomework is a great mobile app for both students and teachers. It is “ is a simple and easy to use iPhone application that allows you to keep track of your homework, classes, projects and tests while interacting with a really cool design”. This is a good way for students to never forget their homework assignment . It is easy to use and does not require any advanced tech knowledge.

Some features of myHomework

Here are the main features and services that myHomework offers to its users:

It is free

It is easy and simple to use

It has an engaging interface

It allows you to quickly enter your class schedule and use it to differ between homework assignments

It sends homework notifications right on your mobile

You can quickly sync and access your homework, classes and projects from your computer through myhomework app.com

Wikipanion is a great mobile app for educators. As its name suggests, Wikipanion allows its users to have an easy and direct access to Wikipedia. Now students can get an instant flow of info right into their hands and with the minimum time possible . All of us use Wikipedia in our researches and daily work and to have an app which would make you access this terrific encyclopedia everywhere you are is just great.

Some features of Wikipanion

Here i a list of the main features and services that Wikipanion provides for its users:

It is free

It easy to use

It has an awesome interface

It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

It has a table of contents browser that knows where you are in the page

It offers some bookmarking facilities including bookmarking individual sections of pages

You can streamline your browsing with history grouped by visit date

It also offers Full in-page searching

You can use Wiktionary dictionary term looking without leaving the current page

It also provides multiple search methods including Smart completion with entry preview, Google searching and a full text Wikipedia search

How can i get started using Wikipanion ?

To learn how you can use this little app you need to watch this short tutorial video.

That’s it about Wikipanion: Access Wikipedia on the go.You might also like:

Dictionary.com is a great mobile app for students learning English. It delivers trusted reference content from Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com, including nearly 1,000,000 words and definitions and 90,000 synonyms and antonyms. The app also provides audio pronunciation and the popular word of the day. Dictionary.com is really a good app to be included into your educative app store. I do recommend it for teachers and students.

Applications of Dictionary.com in education

Dictionary.com is a very important app that our students should have . It has been named as a top 10 app in the App Store’s High School Survival Guide and has been voted best app for college students - US News & World Report. I am quite sure students will find it very practical and handy .That’s it about Dictionary.com: free mobile app to learn vocabulary.You might also like:

FaceFlow is a great web2.0 tool . It is a video conferencing system that allows up to four participants to video conference in real time. I know some teachers and educators get scary when it comes to online conferencing systems given the complexity and advanced technological knowledge they often require, but let me assure you that FaceFlow is completely different. It is very easy to use and does not call for any advanced tech skills .

Some features of FlowFace

Here is a list of the main services that Flow Face provides for its users:

It is free

It is easy to use

It has an awesome interface

It allows its users to video chat with your contacts

It lets you watch videos with your contacts while you chat

It provides a full screen mode to see your friends as if they are right in fornt of you

How can i get started using FaceFlow ?

You need now to add contacts to chat with , remember just four participants are allowed

Click on Add People button

To invite people to join in your conversation you just need to send them links

Applications of FaceFlow in education

I know FaceFlow does not allow for more than four participants to video conference which means that we can not use it with the whole class. But we can use it with lagging or struggling students who need extra reinforcement in their learning .I am pretty sure you can come up with other ideas of how to suit this tool to your teaching needs . Remember The random chat option that FaceFlow offers is not to be used with students without the teacher's supervision.That’s it about FaceFlow: Free real time video conferencing.You might also like: